Glass manufacturing systems are commonly used to form various glass products such as LCD sheet glass. There is a need to inhibit formed impurities from being entrained in a flow of glass melt during the manufacturing process. For example, platinum particles may be formed by certain components of a conventional glass manufacturing system. At temperatures near or above 600° C., platinum in system components may oxidize to form PtO2 gas according to the following equation:Pt(s)+O2(g)PtO2(g)Oxidation←→ReductionBased on this equation, if the temperature or oxygen concentration decreases, some of the PtO2 gas can be reduced to particles containing platinum metal. A standpipe of a conventional glass manufacturing system may be a source of platinum particles. Indeed, the standpipe typically includes platinum, the composition being, for example, 90/10 Pt/Rh, and the temperature of the glass surface is kept at about 1400° C. underneath an air atmosphere.
The standpipe is known to allow a glass level probe to gauge a level of glass in the glass manufacturing system. Typically, the standpipe vertically extends above glass melt flowing through the system. As the standpipe is in fluid communication with the glass melt, platinum particles formed within the standpipe may simply sink through the standpipe and contaminate the glass melt moving through the system below the standpipe.